Voces Intimae
Ragazze Quartet

Ragazze Quartet

Rosa Arnold, violin

Ruña ’t Hart, violin

Annemijn Bergkotte, viola

Rebecca Wise, cello

J. Sibelius (1865-1957)

Selected movements from String Quartet in D minor op. 56 (mov. I, III, V)

Traditional song

Selection of Nordic folk songs (arrangiament by the Danish String Quartet)

Bedtime elixir offered by Bar Caravatti

35’ | Ticket 18 €

With this programme, the Ragazze Quartet weave together the art music of Jean Sibelius and Nordic folk tradition, tracing a sonic journey rooted in the same cultural landscape.

From Sibelius’s String Quartet in D minor op. 56—his only completed work in the genre—movements I, III, and V are presented, drawn from a dense and visionary score often nicknamed Voces intimae. Composed in 1909, the quartet marks a moment of intense introspection in the Finnish composer’s output: a concentrated musical world, marked by subtle tensions and sudden lyrical openings. The selected movements highlight the diversity of this language, ranging from dramatic energy and expressive rarefaction to a continuous search for timbral colour that seems to evoke both inner and natural landscapes.

Alongside this, a selection of Nordic folk songs is presented in arrangements by the Danish String Quartet. Here, traditional material—melodies transmitted orally, dances and songs from various parts of Northern Europe—is reworked with a contemporary sensibility, preserving its original freshness while enriching it with new harmonic and rhythmic nuances.

The juxtaposition of Sibelius and folk repertoire is not merely thematic but reveals a deeper connection: in both cases, a living relationship with folklore emerges, understood not as simple quotation but as a generative source of a musical language that unites memory and invention.

Text by Martina Sangermano